Roger Ailes revisits election night: ‘Rove was wrong. He backed down’

On Fox News Channel’s election night coverage last week, contributor Karl Rove offered the highlight of the night for what was perhaps a disappointing night for many Fox News viewers when he questioned the network’s decision to call Ohio for President Barack Obama.

In an interview with Mediabistro’s TVNewser.com published on Friday, Fox News Channel chairman Roger Ailes explained the events surrounding that incident. Ailes said that when it became apparent Obama would win, he decided to go home.

“It only took 15 minutes to get home,” Ailes said to TVNewser. “I turn on the TV and the first thing I see is Rove saying something like ‘you called Ohio too early.’ And I thought, ‘What the? What is this?'”

Ailes explained that he told Executive Vice President of News Michael Clemente not to go to commercial and confront the decision desk for the sake of transparency.

“We can’t do anything off camera,” Ailes said to Clemente.

“I didn’t want the public or our competitors to say we somehow panicked and didn’t confront the truth on camera,” Ailes said. “As it turned out Rove was wrong. He backed down. Our guys were right. We stayed with it. Megyn did her famous walk down the hall. And it all worked out.”